It is not so much the destination as the voyage itself that matters.

November 19, 2012

DUCKS IN THE MUD

This couple seemed to be enjoying the mud as the water receded (earlier this month). There's even less water on this side of the Lake now, so the geese and ducks we saw from our window earlier in the season have migrated -- to the other side of the Lake if not further.

I thought at the time that it was a pair of mallards, but here the male doesn't seem to have a green head (or at least it didn't show up as green in the available light).

They're definitely mallards. Male mallards' heads can sometimes even seem purple in certain lights. Plus there's a lot of variety in many populations of mallards as they interbreed with other species and also some mallards have been domesticated and bred for certain colours and then they get back into the wild and breed with wild birds. (I'm writing all this from a UK perspective, but it's the same species either side of the ocean and the situation is likely to be the same over where you are!)

I'm with Crafty Green Poet Sallie. Mallards can be very variable when they start to interbreed with "farmyard" or "park" ducks which are themselves an amalgam of different ducks. it's all a bit troubling for us bird watchers who like to put a name to everything.

Very nice images of happy ducks. They find a lot of food in the mud, so they're probably quite content. These are Mallards. The male sometimes goes through a period each year from late spring through the fall where the bright green fades and can sometimes almost appear black. He'll brighten up soon to his more familiar coloration.